The Flin Flon Bombers wrapped up a very successful month by going to extra time Friday and Saturday night, to finish the month of November with a record of: 7-1-1-1.
The Bombers found themselves down 3-1 in the second period against Weyburn on Friday night, when Mike Reagan made a goaltending change pulling SJHL Goaltender of the week Adam Beukeboom in favour of Simon Hofley. You could not fault Beukeboom, the Bombers were being out played and were back on their heels. Despite being outshot 19-11 in the frame, the Bombers managed to get to within one goal after 2, when Tyson Empey was able to pick up his third of the season with only 29 seconds remaining in the period.
This was a huge goal that gave the Bombers some much needed life coming out for the third period. Flin Flon played a much better in the final frame , but were not able to solve goaltender Nick Malvin til very late in the third when Joel Kocur re-directed a Chris Rauckman shot with only 3 seconds left in regulation.
The game went into over time and the Bombers were able to win it on a 4 on 3 powerplay, when MR AUTOMATIC Chris Rauckman fired his 20th of the season low glove side on a tough angle to beat Malvin and send the 500 plus into pure electricity to start the weekend. Final score Flin Flon 4 Weyburn 3 in OT.
A great effort by Weyburn who ended up taking 7 out of a possible 8 points on their Northern road trip and are going to be a team that will not be fun to play the rest of this season. I am calling them a dark horse and I think they are going to be a big factor come playoff time.
Flin Flon would carry the momentum into Saturday's game against Laronge, who the Bombers had already beaten two times this season. Despite outscoring the Ice Wolves 13-2 in the two previous games, this was a different Laronge team.
Despite a 6-0 loss to Weyburn on Wednesday night, Laronge had won 3 of their last 4 games and have beaten the likes of Melfort, Battleford and Kindersley this season.
The Bombers jumped on the board quickly scoring 2 goals a minute and a half apart in the first period from Lishchynski and Kocur to take the lead. It looked like the Bombers might blow the Ice Wolves out again, but Head Coach and GM Shawn Martin called a time out and settled the troops down.
Laronge started to play better and made it 2-1 after 1 when veteran Jared Iron fooled Simon Hofley with a long wrist shot just inside the Bomber blue line.
No scoring in the second period, and Laronge would tie it up when the Blaquiere brothers were able to complete a nice give and go up the ice, 7:50 into the third. The Bombers then looked poised to win it when Kocur potted his second of the night and 5th of the season with ten minutes remaing in the game, and Flin Flon ahead 3-2.
You have to give Laronge a lot of credit, they did not quit and really wanted this one bad and managed to even things up once again when Porter picked up his 7th, on a scramble in front of the Bomber net with just under 4 minutes remaining.
Neither team could win the game in the final few minutes of regulation, so the Whitney faithful got to see extra hockey for the second straight night. Laronge got a big break and were awarded a power play with 30 seconds remaining in OT.
Hofley made a magnificant save on Colby Daniels in the final few seconds of over time and got his team to the shoot out. Flin Flon failed to get a real good scoring chance in the extra frame and I thought they looked a little tired.
Just the one goal in the shoot out and it came from Flin Flon's Austin Evans who made an incredible deek on Ice Wolf goal tender Kris Joyce, when he tucked a nice shot just underneath the cross bar that would of beat any goalie. The Bomber's won in extra time again to push their overall record to: 15-3-4-3, and have closed the gap to two points behind Melfort for first in the Sherwood Division and have 2 games in hand.
These two teams will hook up for the 6th time on Wednesday at the Northern Lights Palace. Flin Flon's over time record is now a little more respectable at : 2-4-2-3. It may not of been pretty, but the Bombers found a way to get the job done and wrapped up one of their most successful November's ever. Flin Flon go's into December unbeaten in their last 7 games and have also given themselves a little breathing room for second spot with a 5 point lead over Nipawin.
Make sure you join us for all the action in the showdown for first place in the Sherwood Division, when we hit the air from Melfort on Wednesday with the Murray GM Coach's Show starting at 7:15, puck drop at 7:30.
The Mustangs lead the season series winning 4 of the 5 meetings, but Flin Flon did manage to beat the Mustangs 3-2 in the shootout in their last meeting November the 12th right in Melfort.
